How to Get Away With Murder: Shonda Rhimes Defends Twitter-Unfriendly Title

Hashtags are once again a thorn in Shonda Rhimes' side. Last month she ranted against the inefficacy of hashtag activism during her speech at Dartmouth, and now she's getting needled about the hashtag-ability of the newest Shondaland TV show, How to Get Away With Murder.

At the Television Critics Association summer press tour on July 14, critics called out the long title and asserted that it was "maybe difficult" to tweet, since it's 27 characters long. (Sacre bleu!)

"We don't consider a hashtag when we're writing a title," Shonda responded, per Entertainment Weekly — her comeback inspiring applause from the audience.

The mastermind behind Grey's Anatomyand Scandal then continued, "[Creator Pete Nowalk] came to us and said I have a show and I want to call it How to Get Away with Murder, and we liked it."

The show focuses on Annalise Keating (played by two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis), a defense attorney whose law school course goes by that very title — and whose ambitious students get snarled up in a murder plot themselves.

Pete gave his two cents on the lengthy title and how Twitter will respond: "I love that that's what she calls her class because she likes to push buttons, and she knows she has the gravity and the attention, and it's a little controversial. In terms of the Twitter stuff, I feel like the audience will decide what they want to call the show. If they want to call it by its full title or if they want to call it 'Murder' or whatever they want on Twitter… it's cool that way."

Because we are so generous here at Wetpaint Entertainment, we're sharing our ideas for hashtags to use: